Terms of Surrender

On April 9, the day after their last battle, Grant and Lee met in the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox. In McLean’s parlor, Grant officially accepted Lee’s total surrender as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant’s terms of surrender allowed Confederate soldiers to return to their homes on the condition that they never again take up arms against the United States. It took months for the entire Confederacy to surrender, but the meeting at Appomattox is widely regarded as the end of four long years of Civil War.